Mississippi State is paying how much to beat up on UMass? Cost of Week 10 buy game

Mississippi State is a basement dweller this year, there just isn't any other way to draw it up.

The Bulldogs sit at the bottom of the SEC at 1-7, with only a win against Eastern Kentucky in Week 1 to their name.

Now, heading into Week 10, Mississippi State will welcome lowly UMass (2-6) to Starkville in an attempt to lessen the pain of this season with what should be an easily bought win.

Mississippi State is trying to (legally) buy its second win of the year

As part of a three-game series that was agreed to in 2015, Mississippi State is paying UMass $175,000 for Saturday's matchup. It wired $375,000 to the Minutemen for the first two installments of the football series in which it won both.

Normally, college football "buy games" as they're called happen within the first month of the season during the traditional non-conference play period. However, it also isn't uncommon to see some occur this late in the year, particularly for SEC teams.

SEC teams only play eight conference games in a year, as opposed to nine played by the Big Ten for comparison. So, instead of awarding an extra bye week, programs schedule (and pay for) another non-conference game - usually against an easy opponent.

To be fair, at least one of those non-conference games if not multiple are against Power Conference opponents as part of high-profile matchups to open the season.

Saturday's contest appears to be an easy win on paper but given the way the Bulldogs have played so far, it's not necessarily a foregone conclusion.

Mississippi State ranks 70th in total offense across FBS teams while UMass ranks 30th in total defense. That's a pretty stark difference between the two programs.

No matter the result, UMass will be making out like bandits with some extra cash in its pocket to put toward one of only three independent programs in the FBS.